A little chaos...

There are times I'm really tired with all this chaos...

I've "quiet" weeks : no afib, very few ectopics...
Sometimes, when I'm quiet (in my bed or simply sitting), I may have "organised" ectopics. They come in a regular pattern (bigeminal, mostly), and never lead to afib. It seems they appear when I'm quiet, my heart slowing down (maybe below 60 bpm). Some little movements are enough to make them disappear... for some minutes. Then, they come back if I lay down still. They usually stop after some minutes.
They're like this (apparently, multifocal ectopics ?)



I've bad weeks, bad days too. Like today, as I've been blessed with two afib episodes. It's rare.
Here are some tracings...

From the first one (time of the day is in the pics) ; It was while digesting my heavy breakfast : 90g of bread + butter.









The second one came while digesting my heavy midday meal : a bowl of soup.












Both episodes were stomach related. Digestion (whatever the food) nearly always make me feel as if my stomach was pushing up against my heart and lungs. I've a weak LES, but I barely feel stomach reflux. No heartburn. Mostly bloated.

I've had a stress test, echocardiogram and blood analysis in march with my cardiologist, and everything was fine. I've to see another doctor for gastroscopy and colonoscopy, but appointments have been cancelled, thanks to the covid-19.

What do you think about that ?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/19/2020 04:42PM by Pompon.

From a guy that's had many days of more than 90 grams of bread at breakfast and then some more and now understands intestinal permeability, endotoxins into the bloodstream, hyperinsulinemia and hyperglycemia, destruction of the glycocalyx and endothelium and increasing plaque in their arteries, I'd say - WAY TOO MUCH BREAD!

Some tests and labs I'd recommend:

CAC
Fasting insulin
Fasting glucose
Lipids esp TGs
DEXA scan
Colonoscopy

Pompon,

I recently wrote about a friend who had an afib episodes after eating a large buffet style meal and woke up in afib. He ran all kinds of tests and all came back negative, but anytime he had too much of carbs or heavier meal he would claim that it felt like his heart would go into afib with many ectopics. My thinking was that his stomach motility was slow and recommended that he take ginger extract which has been shown in studies to increase motility. So every meal he has around 3 pills 250g of ginger extract (minimum 5% gingerol) and so far no bloating or heart issues at all since starting few months ago.

Link to ginger extract.

[www.swansonvitamins.com]

My doc, Gundry, focuses on digestion. Food lists are in this book but if you PM an email address, I can forward a PDF of the lists, if you are interested. Know a quite a few people whose digestion got better following the program. Book is good to read to understand the logic, but you can also just follow the food lists.

Quote
johnnyS
Pompon,

I recently wrote about a friend who had an afib episodes after eating a large buffet style meal and woke up in afib. He ran all kinds of tests and all came back negative, but anytime he had too much of carbs or heavier meal he would claim that it felt like his heart would go into afib with many ectopics. My thinking was that his stomach motility was slow and recommended that he take ginger extract which has been shown in studies to increase motility. So every meal he has around 3 pills 250g of ginger extract (minimum 5% gingerol) and so far no bloating or heart issues at all since starting few months ago.

Link to ginger extract.

[www.swansonvitamins.com]

FYI for those taking flecainide: Ginger interacts with flec

My mistake! I meant Eliquis and ginger
[www.drugs.com]

What puzzles me is most of those diets and supplements talk about "losing weight" or fighting diarrhea. My BMI is 19.8; and I've no diarrhea.
There are controversial studies about probiotics, diets and supplements...
Not easy ! I've already tried so many things !

Quote
Pompon
What puzzles me is most of those diets and supplements talk about "losing weight" or fighting diarrhea. My BMI is 19.8; and I've no diarrhea.
There are controversial studies about probiotics, diets and supplements...
Not easy ! I've already tried so many things !

A lot of Gundry's focus is autoimmune. For some this means weight loss, but for many it is just trying to make the digestion work well. I have a friend whose BMI is 18 something and she does a variant of his diet, certainly not for weight loss, but for autoimmune reasons. In her case it was to mitigate severe cognitive issues that came on around age 49. Today at around 56 or so, she is very sharp.

Something to note is that Hans recommends paleo in the 12 step PDF.

ASAP, I'll get an appointement for stomach and bowels exams. Any kind of food seems to do some harm. I've ordered s. boulardii. It's likely worth a try.
Thanks for your replies.

Well... Definitely a vagal tone issue for me.
Thursday has been the best day of the present week. I worked the whole day in my backyard and got no ectopics nor afib after meal. In the evening I felt tired and got a good night of peaceful sleep.
By contrast, other days were working days at my desk, at home instead of at the office, thanks to the confinment, and I had lots of HR troubles as well as stomach discomfort.
I do my best trying to sort the good from the bad, but there are so many parameters, most of them out of my control, that it's really hard to make statements.
I guess if I'm able to keep things more quiet in my stomach, it'll be of great help for my vagal tone.
Quiet physical activity just after meal seems better than sitting or laying down while digesting. I don't know for sure if it's body position related, but I've already tried neither sitting nor laying down after meal, and it didn't often prevent ectopics. Light physical activity always worked better.